The discussion revolves around the effects of running ./launcher rebuild app on an existing Discourse site. tom1984 initially asks if the command will wipe configuration and content, to which Falco confirms it only updates the software. Ed_S advises taking a backup before upgrading, especially on underpowered machines, and recommends downloading a local copy for safety. He also suggests being prepared to seek help if the upgrade fails, using logs for troubleshooting. tom1984 then asks about backing up via the admin UI, and pfaffman clarifies that it’s sufficient unless the only backup is on the server itself. tom1984 confirms he’ll download backups locally. pfaffman reminds users to mark helpful replies with a checkmark, and Ed_S reiterates the importance of backups. Finally, tom1984 asks where the backup file is located, and pfaffman points to /var/discourse/launcher.
Newbie to discourse and docker here. If I already have an established site with configuration and content present, will this wipe it?
I assume there will be an interuption to the site being served, that I can live with…but will content/configuration/customisation be lost?
Any tips appreciated! thanks
No, this simply updates the software.
Yes, there is an interruption of a few minutes, but no content and configs will be lost.
thank you very much for the reply, much appreciated
A bit of extra detail, on an underpowered machine the interruption could be some tens of minutes. On a fast machine, maybe a few minutes.
Because upgrades can go wrong, you should always start by taking a backup. Preferably for safety download a local copy too.
If the upgrade does go wrong, be ready to ask for help on this forum, with evidence from your logs: the last few hundred lines of output should be enough. Sometimes the first few lines of output.
In case of failure to upgrade, it might be that you can resurrect the previous state of your forum software:
Thank you, that brings me to another question I had!
Is backing up through the admin site UI adequate (Along with a new docker image of the same version), or is there a behind the scenes method?
It’s enough unless you have the only copy on the server and that server goes away for some reason.
It’s enough if whatever holds those backups is safe.
If you have that backup and your yml file(s), you’ve got what you need to set up a new server.
If you have backups on S3/Spaces or similar then just the yml file is all you need to set up a new server and restore the latest backup.
Yes sorry, I meant I would download those backups off the server too.
That’s great, thanks!
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this is quite important!
Which file is this… And where is it 
?
/var/discourse/containers/*